In a trailer released recently, Netflix confirmed that the documentary Titan: The OceanGate Disaster will be available for streaming from June 11. As per The Hollywood Reporter, the film is headed to the Tribeca Festival on June 6, days before its premiere.
Directed by Mark Monroe, the feature follows the 2023 underwater implosion of Titan, a submersible operated by American tourism and expeditions company OceanGate. It offers insights into the mindset of CEO Stockton Rush, who piloted the Titan but breathed his last after the submersible malfunctioned.
Titan: The OceanGate Disaster is produced by Monroe, Lily Garrison, and Jon Bardin, with Liz Garbus, Dan Cogan, Kate Barry, Mala Chapple, Tommy Coriale, Jude Gerard Prest, Hannah Olson, and Amy Herdy onboard as executive producers.
The film employs whistleblower testimony, audio recordings, and footage from the company’s beginnings to revisit the voyage to the wrecked Titanic that resulted in the deaths of five people, including Pakistani father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood.
“There was no way of knowing when Titan was going to fail. But it was a mathematical certainty that it would fail,” an individual says in the trailer.
Another says of the CEO, “I thought Stockton was a borderline psychopath. How do you manage a person like that who owns the company?”
Carrying a pilot and four passengers, the submersible went missing in June 2023 with all individuals, including British explorer Hamish Harding and French diver Paul Henri Nargeolet, confirmed to be dead soon after.
The BBC recently obtained footage from the US Coast Guard’s investigation, which captured the sound of the submersible imploding. The footage shows Wendy Rush, the CEO’s wife, hearing a sound from her position on the sub’s support ship. “What was that bang?” she asks.
After receiving a delayed message, she mistakenly believes that there’s no cause for concern, not knowing that everyone onboard is dead.
Later this year, the US Coast Guard is expected to publish a report on the findings from the investigation, which will assess the shortcomings and how such a tragedy can be prevented in the future.
